The Critical
Thinking Co. produces curriculum that helps students’ critical thinking
skills. This is something I think is
really lacking in much of our modern day curriculum. Simply answering a multiple choice question doesn’t
tell me much about what a student is comprehending. Is the curriculum teaching
the student to be a problem solver? Can he or she express him or herself
intelligently concerning a particular topic?
World
History Detective Book 1 covers prehistory, ancient, medieval and early
American civilizations. The book is over 360 pages of a variety of activities
that encourage the student to use his brain matter. And speaking as a mom of a teenage boy, I am
always hoping that we moving past one word answers and the ‘guess and point’
method of problem solving. The book can
be used as a standalone text book or as a supplement. It is intended for grades
6-12 and includes 78 lessons.
So how does it work?
I want to show you a lesson we currently finished. This one
is on Ancient India.
Here is a little bit about Josiah. He is dyslexic. This
means that much of what is required reading we do together. I deal with reading
instruction separately. I don’t want to limit his education because he
struggles with reading the material. However, the World History Detective Bookis unlike any text I have come across.
It divides the material into manageable paragraphs and
numbers the sentences. The reading is extremely detailed. There isn’t a lot of
fluff to skim through.
On this day the reading is
relatively short and we move right into multiple choice questions. Remember
what I said about multiple choice questions being mostly ineffective? I usually
mean it. This book is much different in the fact that it requires the student
to back his answer with the number of the sentence (s) from the reading passage.
That random ‘eenie meenie, miennie moe’ method doesn’t work
here. This was challenging for Josiah! This lesson also has a writing activity (I
think all of them do).
Along with the handy dandy maps, timelines are also used
heavily in the curriculum. We do love a good timeline. I remember being in
school and somehow thinking that all the events I was learning about in the
world happened independently from one another; almost like they existed in a different
time and space.
My favorite study tool by far has been the concept map. The
concept maps used in this book is unique in the fact that they use a word bank.
This was so helpful for Josiah. The
concept map let him ‘see’ the important parts of the lesson.
This isn’t a product that I could let Josiah work on
independently at this point in time. I imagine that kisd without this kind of reading block would be just fine. Josiah is in 7th grade and very
bright, but I think that the reading would still overwhelm him. The variation
in the paragraph and reading material is still very helpful, but for him to
read back through the material to come to any conclusions on his own is still a
stretch. I, myself, loved working through the book with him. We had a good time
searching through history together. It does take more time, but it is sooo
important!
Just a little note. The early sections talk about
Neanderthals, etc. I don’t have a bit of a problem discussing those kinds of
things as theory (even though we have a different view). I do have more of an
issue when it is presented as historical fact. The sections that dealt with
major world religions were very careful to preface any statements with “they
believe” or “according to…” I also don’t believe in shielding Josiah against
ideas that are contrary to what we believe the Bible says about history. It
provides a great discussion.
Overall, this has been a fascinating product to use. We have
made adjustments according to our particular needs. I really do think that The Critical Thinking Co. has developed a first-rate product.
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